Twitch's Safety Advisory Council Now Only Permits Voice Chat In Albanian

Lord Waffle King

Twitch has been making strides to raise up marginalized gamers with its new Safety Advisory Council, a group of social media experts and Twitch streamers that overlook and provide guidance to the community.

The council's latest target? The unfair advantage of voice chat. Voice chat allows white cis-het males to dominate the competitive gaming scene, and provides an unnecessary obstacle to females and minorities. The solution they came up with? Force everyone to only speak Albanian.

“If you use voice chat, you’re revealing your linguistic profile, your voice, which can open you up to being harassed or considered less of a good player, because there are systemic issues with our society and how people treat nonstandard voices,” said Twitch Safety Advisory Council member Steph Loehr in her stream “So there is an inclusivity cost to voice chat, and if you want to get more marginalized gamers with nonstandard voices to be professional players, you have to address this. As such, the only logical solution is for everyone to speak Albanian. That way we are all at a disadvantage, except the Albanians, who need the support the most.”

From now on, speaking in anything besides Albanian on Twitch will get your account immediately banned, and your IP not only blacklisted but put on a list. The Albanians will not forget.

"Not only are females and minorities on a level playing field now, but those with disabilities as well." said Twitch CEO Emmett Shear, touting the company as one of the most progressive in the industry now.